Moose Milligan

I saw it on Twitter earlier and I can’t remember the exact record but we have a poor record against the worst teams we’ve played so far. Whether or not that coincides with road performance I’m not sure.

I hope Bowden is correct about Soto. Don’t need him coming into this division.

Or guys that get on base. We have, arguably, a homer happy group. Mountcastle fell over today swinging. Odor swings from his heels practically every time. Problem is, they’re not great hitters to begin with and have no plate discipline. They can’t get pitches to homer on lately because a pitcher doesn’t need to throw a strike to get them out. Why throw Hays a strike? It’s a group of guys with overall bad to mediocre plate skills. I don’t care about hitting homers. ****, if every batter in our lineup had Adley’s plate discipline we’d probably win 100 games this year. It’s absurd to me to see that the rookie has, by far and away, the most excellent at bats on the team. They’re a joy to watch. It’s like enjoying a fine filet and a glass of red wine paired perfectly. The rest of the guys are a double quarter pounder and a fountain Coke that wasn’t mixed right.

Or just because it’s not hard to be better than Odor.

Pathetic showing from the offense this weekend. Gotta be able to score more against a staff like that.

Clutch walk Vavra!!

Only if you’re willing to learn from it.

Ugh. I jinxed it. I don’t get why he wouldn’t not throw fastballs until they proved they could hit it.

Ride the lightning, bitch.

Agreed. Ugh their 90s outfits with the pinstripes were atrocious too.

Phuck off, Pham.

Mountcastle is a cartoon of himself at this point.

On a side note and apropos of nothing, I think the Reds have some of the worst jerseys in the game. Red and white should be pretty easy but the shadowing on the letters and numbers are awful and whatever font they use sucks too.

Finally.

And they have BY FAR the worst bullpen in the entire MLB. Gotta get this done. IMO, a good team needs to be able to beat up on such a weak unit.

Well Mountcastle and Odor are on, those are two automatic outs lately so the rest of the fellas need to come through here. This is a great opportunity.

This offense is pathetic right now. Would like to see them have a huge inning but I'm not so certain.

I don't want to say this is a "must win" game, but if you're thinking you have a shot at a playoff berth of some sort, you need to be able to take 2/3 from a sad sack team like the Reds.

That’s true. But the offense isn’t always guaranteed to get back in the game. I’d like to see a laugher here for once.

We are, but I hate it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun. But I feel like that juice eventually runs out.

If by reliable fielder you mean he’s a guy that can catch something hit right at him, sure, I agree.

That's exactly it. I don't know why any opposing pitchers would throw him a strike. Low and outside sliders, aka the Adam Jones Special are all it takes to send him walking back to the dugout. And maybe a chest high fastball to give him a different look.

I'm 50/50 on a trade happening. The Mets deal seemed to be imminent, but it looks like it's cooled off. It could come back around. I can easily see him being traded, I can easily see him staying. And if he stays, I wouldn't be upset by it, not in the least. But just because we've got a good system doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking for lottery tickets. I think that should always be the case no matter where the ML team is and where the system is. This team is a joy to watch simply because everyone's expectations headed into the season were abysmal. Compared to what a lot of us were thinking in April, yeah, this is a joy to watch. That doesn't mean they're close to contention. There's still a fairly long way to go.

I think that's the result of any trade, don't you? Elias will get what he can. I don't think he's going to trade guys just for the sake of trading guys if that's what you mean, there's got to be a return that makes sense. But we shouldn't pretend that the listed players are going to get us great talent coming back unless there's a diamond in the rough somewhere.

I like watching Mateo too, but put me in the camp with the rest of the posters who think he's got a long way to go before solidifying himself as a long term piece. Any hot streak should be met with a bit of skepticism, IMO. Anointing him as a guy who's figuring it out is simply confirmation bias. I'm sure Mario Mendoza had a few moments where people thought he could become a better hitter than he was but we saw how that ended up. That said, I believe he should have the starting SS gig for the rest of the season and maybe to start 2023, too. But Henderson is knocking, it seems like he might be able to play SS. And we just drafted Holliday who, hopefully, shoots through the system in a Bobby Witt type of way. I mean, it's a positive problem to have. And it's not just as simple as sliding him over to second base, Urias could have that spot held down, too. He could blossom into an effective hitter. But much like Mountcastle, I think if he has a spot on this team in the next 2-3 years as a starter, he's buoyed by guys in a lineup who are significantly better selective hitters than him. Having Mateo in his current form in a lineup with guys who are also hackers isn't good. Having Mateo in a lineup with more guys who trend towards AR's approach to hitting is acceptable if he's still bringing that SS defense and speed to the table. As far as trade value goes, I'm sure a team that's in contention and needs better SS defense would like to have him. What would they trade for that? Not sure. But I can't imagine it would be a whole lot. Whatever. He's fun to watch, he's been a big part of this team and I'm excited to see what he can do the rest of the way. I'm not ready to make any proclamations that he's figuring it out as a hitter.